Opinion
Respect and dialogue with opposing views are necessary to face Trump presidency
By Genevieve Schuster ’20
December 8, 2016
Tags opinion
The 2016 election results were absolutely heart-wrenching for millions of Americans. Women, people of color, queer people, immigrants and many other groups who have been marginalized and understand the dangers of publicly validated discrimination are worried about the regression of human rights that will likely unfold within the next four years. The past few weeks since the election have been filled with a combination of mourning and continued efforts to fight the good fight, even though it’s about to get infinitely harder, particularly for targeted minorities.
Given the success of our recent rally, it’s clear that a large portion of the Hamilton population is standing up against our President-elect, Donald Trump. However, there are some people who are incredibly pleased with the election results. Unfortunately, those people might be our parents or grandparents, which presumably made for some awkward Thanksgivings.
Thankfully, both of my parents are just as liberal as I am. Unfortunately, my grandparents do not hold the same values. They are very conservative and are often painfully vocal about it, especially my grandfather. I was expecting the Thanksgiving dinner conversation to take a political turn and promptly spiral into complete and utter discord and eventually tense silence. But my expectations were disappointed when I realized that my grandmother, knowing exactly what would come of election talk, had barred my grandfather from talking about anything political. If he started to wander into the realm of the election, she would promptly not-so-subtly remind him of their deal and he would harrumph and lay off.
At first, although I was a little disappointed to miss out on the expected drama, I was pretty relieved that Thanksgiving wasn’t going to devolve into a fight. However, avoidance of conversation is actually the opposite of a solution to the problem in the longterm.
One of the least productive things we can do in the wake of the election is to continue to perpetrate this divide, this “us” versus “them” mentality that Trump used to manipulate people and win the election in the first place. When we avoid talking to people who have opinions that we can’t understand, we are embracing our own version of “us” versus “them” that can be equally hurtful. One thing that I personally have realized since the election is that the importance of conversation as opposed to shouting into echo chambers cannot be overstated. There is nothing productive about un-friending all of your Facebook friends who support Trump, or even sharing videos about how evil Trump is; you’re really just preaching to the choir.
What has to be done is much harder, which is to engage in conversation with those who don’t believe in what we do. Shying away from opportunities to listen and respond to those with different values completely eradicates any opportunity for education and change. In a society highly stratified by age, it can be hard to engage in these conversations, especially with older people whom many of us have been taught to respect at all costs.
Respect doesn’t have to mean avoidance. Respect can mean the willingness to engage in these difficult conversations, the faith that change is possible and talking about it is the first step. I would like to believe that the bigotry among which many of our parents and grandparents grew up can be unlearned. Although Thanksgiving dinner may not have been the perfect venue to have such a conversation, communication with people with opposing beliefs is an important first step.